This is a view looking up the Northeast Rift Zone of Mauna Loa, which
was the site of the most recent eruption of this volcano in March
1984. The summit caldera can just be seen. The line crossing the
numerous lava flows half way up the volcano is the access road to
the Mauna Loa weather observatory.

During the most recent eruption of Mauna Loa, which took
place in 1984, there were several long lobes of lava that extended
well towards the town of Hilo. Fortunately, none reached the town,
but as we can see here they destroyed quite a bit of rain forest.
Photo by Scott Rowland.

This view shows the northeast portion of the summit caldera of Mauna
Loa volcano. Notice some of the fractures (dark lines) that cut the
dark a'a lava flows. We can also see that the caldera rim has been
cut several times by the formation of small pit craters.

Another view of the northeast flank of Mauna Loa volcano, again
showing the access road to the weather observatory. This set of lava
flows has been studied in detail using thermal infrared data from the
TIMS instrument.